Hasta La Gadget!

The Xbox 360 is continuing its dominance as the best-selling console in the US. Microsoft has announced that they sold 302,000 consoles in February, making it the 26th straight month that the Xbox 360 has been on top in the US. Meanwhile, though, Nintendo Wii U sales continue to slump, with only 64,000 consoles sold during the month of February.

The Wii U had a really rough January, seeing sales as low as 57,000, but while February sales of the new console saw a jump by 40%, that only means that the Wii U sold 64,000 units, which is still lower than the lowest that the PS3 or the Xbox 360 has ever gotten. It’s said that January was a particularly bad month for the Wii U due to holiday backlash and people returning the console to stores.

However, as for the Xbox 360 console, it holds 41% of the market share among current-generation consoles, and the total money spent on the Xbox 360 in February — including hardware, software and accessories — was the most for any console in the US. Some pretty impressive numbers considering that Microsoft hasn’t lost the number one spot in over two years.

Total video game sales for February topped out at $810 million, which is actually down 25% from the same time last year. Console sales racked up $244.2 million, video game sales reached $369.9 million, and accessories rang in at $213.9 million while also boasting just a 3% drop from last year, while all other categories dropped 25% or more.

[via Gamasutra]

Xbox 360 best-selling console in US for 26th straight month, Wii U struggles is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Julie Uhrman, the founder and CEO of Ouya, states that the gaming console will not support online multiplayer when it launches. She hopes that the the developers will be able to get the feature up and running by the end of the year. But fear not, local multiplayer will still be supported, so you’ll be able to play side-by-side with your friends (presumably up to 3 of them). Uhrman hopes to bring back the era of “back-couch” game play.

Ouya is the highly anticipated gaming console that runs on Android’s OS. The console is set to ship to its Kickstarter supporters on March 28th, and it’s goal is to take on its console gaming competitors, the PS3 and the Xbox 360. The system runs on an NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. You are able to increase its storage size by connecting an external USB stick or hard drive to USB port on the system.

Uhrman says that the $99 system is a major draw for gaming developers, because unlike the PlayStation or the Xbox, it won’t cost developers a fortune to release a game for it. There are currently 481 games being developed for the console, and the developers are able to monetize their games by adding in-app purchases, subscriptions, or freemium features, something that Uhrman says is very difficult to achieve with traditional consoles.

Online multiplayer is set to launch by the end of the year, and will include leaderboards and achievements. The addition of online multiplayer will help make MMORPG’s more successful on the Android operating system. Along with online multiplayer, Uhrman says that they’re in the process of hooking up video streaming services, like Hulu or Netflix, onto the system so that the console can double as a replacement TV box (similar to Roku).

[via Forbes]

Ouya online multiplayer to launch by end of the year is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We don’t know squat about what the PS4 will look like since it didn’t make an appearance at Sony’s two-hour long press event last night, but we’ve learned a lot about what it’ll be like when it finally shows up. And now, we know it’s going to have AMD innards. More »

In order to get game developers to contribute to the OUYA project, OUYA and Kill Screen collaborated together and launched the CREATE Game Jam. The event was a massive success for OUYA, drawing in around 165 game developers. They drew in developers with special grand prizes, like a $20,000 grand prize, and a $5000 prize for each winner in the specialized categories.

After several weeks, both Kill Screen and OUYA finally have a king to crown in their contest. The game, Strange Happenings on Murder Island, developed by FreeLives, has been crowned the Grand Prize winner of the entire event, scoring them the coveted prize of $20,000. Strange Happenings is an odd, Minecraft-esque game, packed with gun violence, dinosaurs, and possibly drug-induced levels. We can definitely see the entertainment aspect of the game.

There were also 6 special categories in which the winners won the $5000 each. The winner for the “Most Surprising” award was ‘Television’ by Laboratory Games LLC. The winner of the “Four Bright Buttons and Two Joysticks” award was ‘Bombball’ by E McNeill. The winner of the “Most Immersive” award was ‘Whispering Willows’ by Night Light Interactive. The winner of the “Pop Your Eyes Out” award was ‘Pipnis’ by Santa Ragione. The winner of the “Best Couch with Friends” award was ’2D Cube Zombie Platformer’ by Molinware. And finally, the “Best Game Created Using the Unity Engine” award went to ‘Stikbold’ by Team Stikbold.

So congratulations to all of the winners. It was also a huge win for OUYA as well. Not only will the winners of each category be included in the OUYA gaming system, but every other game that competed should be available for the system too. These games are optimized to be played on the OUYA system, and they should make the Kickstarter product that much more appealing when it finally hits the stores in June.

[via Kill Screen]

OUYA CREATE Game Jam winners burst forth is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Over the past couple of weeks there has been several reports outlining a problem customers have been having in transferring the licenses of Virtual Console games from the Wii to the Wii U. Now there’s a solution. As one tenacious user tells in an epic tale of customer support, pain, and redemption, Nintendo seems to be willing to cut out the middle man and give store credit for the trouble – seems too good to be true!

The middle man in this situation is the Error Code 200101 that users have been experiencing in this process for several weeks. This error generally results in a screen in which users are asked to “repair” their purchases so that they may be correctly sent from their Wii console to their Wii U console. This repair cost has been reported as anywhere from $60 to $85 USD depending on the number of titles being transferred.

Though as some customers like Kyle Orland of Ars Technica decided that this phantom “repair” cost was acceptable, Ryan from the Nintendo Fun Club Podcast thought different. It’s Ryan who lived this epic adventure with the Nintendo customer service representative crew, the end result being a massive amount of Wii Points for his Wii Shop Channel. The amount he received, 57,000 Wii points (aka $570 USD), plus a $50 bonus, covered the amount of value his original library was worth.

Then the $50 bonus Ryan received was marked with a note, saying it was for “the inconvenience.” Of course none of these points can be exchanged for real cash, and none of Ryan’s saved games will be appearing here, but consider this: Nintendo could very easily have just told Ryan he had to pay the repair cost. Instead they cashed up his new account and deleted the licenses from the first set of games he had on the original Wii.

Seem like a kind gesture to you?

Wii to Wii U transfer error sees giant store credit windfall is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.